The House and Senate are back in session this week. Both are scheduled to be in recess next week, but funding the Department of Homeland Security could play a role in bringing them back to finding a funding source.
This week, the House is scheduled to consider Congressman Chip Roy’s legislation, the SAVE America Act, as mentioned in last week’s Compass. To recap, this legislation would require states to obtain proof of citizenship when registering an individual to vote, purge the voter rolls of non-citizens, and require that individuals present photo identification before voting.
In August of 2025, Pew Research issued a report that showed these ideas have broad bipartisan support. In fact, 83 percent support requiring all voters to show government-issued photo identification. Elon Musk recently posted on X in reference to the SAVE America Act, “It must be done or democracy is dead.” Meanwhile former Vice President Kamala Harris cited a lack of locations to photocopy your ID in rural areas as a reason for her opposition and Minority Leader Chuck Schumer compared voter ID laws to “Jim Crow” policies.
Senator Jon Husted, who replaced Vice President JD Vance after he was elected, took to X to defeat these claims with data compiled in his state of Ohio. He wrote, “Ohio implemented a strict photo ID law before the 2024 presidential election. Turnout data shows no evidence of voter suppression. In fact, 2024 produced the second-highest turnout and turnout rate of the last four presidential elections in Ohio. 2012: 5,633,246 voters (70.53%) 2016: 5,607,641 voters (71.33%) 2020: 5,974,121 voters (73.99%) 2024: 5,851,387 voters (71.71%).”
If the legislation is passed out of the House this week, the Senate has the option of breaking an expected Democratic filibuster the old fashioned way: by making them talk. Sen. Mike Lee, quoting his colleague Sen. Ashley Moody on X, posted “My colleague, @SenAshleyMoody, nails it with this message: Return to Senate tradition. Require filibustering senators to (gasp) actually speak. Using existing Senate rules…”
Undoubtedly, the debate on the House floor will be interesting to watch.
ICYMI…
- Conservative Action Project: The Senate Must Use the Talking Filibuster to Pass the SAVE America Act
- Chronicles Magazine: Elites Versus Ordinary Americans on Voter ID
- American Mind: The Lemon Test
- Fox News: Muslim state senator introduces Virginia bill defining Islamophobia as hate crime in assault cases
- Daily Caller: Senate Republicans Have the Power to Force Democrats to Filibuster Voter ID – So Why Don’t They?